Health services available at The Robert Barton Trust
After developing and completing health surveys with our client group we found that a high proportion of them accessed no health provision at all. Access to treatment can be harder due to the lifestyle of travelling people. These reasons include no permanent sites for travellers to reside on. This makes long-term treatment problematic. Lack of an address means no postal updates for health promotion such as smears, immunisations and general check ups.
Out of 82 travelling and homeless people surveyed 32 had no registration with health services. 68 were regular smokers, 56 drank alcohol regularly, 32 only ate hot food when The Robert Barton Trust is open (twice a week) We also regularly see untreated burns (from open fires), dog bites, various feet and skin rashes.
After working closely with the Somerset Primary Care Trust our health worker was trained and equipped to offer the following services:
• Free compassionate pregnancy testing (with full referral service)
• Free condoms (with demonstration)
• Support accessing medical services including doctors and dentists
• Chlamydia screening (under 24s only)
• Smoking cessation advice
To discuss any of these services email Sioux on siouxrbt@yahoo.co.uk